Prince Charles Quotes

I really feel that political will is born out of popular will.

You can be president of the United States and have the best, most bipartisan-seeming idea in the world. But if it doesn't have a constituency, you might as well be town clerk of Toad Suck, Arkansas.

Publicity is a great purifier because it sets in action the forces of public opinion, and in this country public opinion controls the courses of the nation.

My role as king will be much like my mum's as queen, so long as I remain in tune with the people.

It depends on the consent of the people to decide whether kings or counsuls or other magistrates are to be established in authority over them, and if there is a legitimate cause, the people can change a kingdom into an aristocracy or an aristocracy into a democracy, and vice versa.

… something with monarchical power in it would be most effectual for the settlement of the nation

Nothing is more difficult, in general, than to make a nation perceive anything as true, or seek its own interest, in any manner but as its forefathers have opined and acted.

Indian nationalism is the nationalism of an idea, the idea of an ever-ever land, emerging from an ancient civilization, shaped by a shared history, sustained by pluralist democracy.

The more unpopular politicians are, the better people think it is to have a monarchy.

That's been the key to the good success of Monaco - the closeness between the Grimaldi family and the Monegasques.

Should the old system remain, then I swear before God to you that within a few years we shall see a Stadholder back again for I know of no other counter-weight to the formidable spirit of Aristocracy …

It is far from a coincidence that the rise of the popular press spelled eventual doom for monarchs of all types. Once the news becomes democratized, governance is sure to follow.

It is important not to confuse the national spirit with that of the faction which presently dominates…

Any nation that forgets its past cannot have a future.

Horse-and-Carriage diplomacy, like governance by crowned heads selected by accident of birth, proved wholly inadequate to address a crisis of the Electric Age.

People are far more willing to fight for their country—for their history, their soil, their common religious identity—than they are for an abstract political body created by fiat [as with the EU].

I believe the Australian people have an affection for the Queen, and so they should have.

In a democracy, you can be right and still lose power.

I think you can't have the monarchy without the coronation. I think you would have to get rid of the whole kit and caboodle.

Presidents have to decide what their popularity is for. Lyndon Johnson probably understood best that political popularity is a wasting asset. You had to use it when you had it.

There is no prospect of any of us being able to kick out any of the presidents of Europe; they operate in a sphere and a realm well away from and out of reach of and out of touch with the people.

Because America is a democracy, public support for presidential foreign-policy decisions is essential.

The historian Linda Colley has analysed how and why George III transformed himself from being a figure of 'perfect hatred' to the father of the country.

The United States was founded on a revolution that abolished the monarchy, aristocracy, titles and primogeniture. Britain may be able in the future to become a more equal and open society while retaining all of these things. But this has yet to be proved.

I am the people's politician. If the day should ever come when the people can't save me, I'll know I'm finished.